Combination garment



Oct. 26, 1937. J. COWF 2,097,175

COMBINATION GARMENT Filed Jan. 14, 1937 2 Sheeis-Sheet 1 Oct. 26, 1937. J cow 2,097,175

COMBINATION GARMENT Filed Jan. 14, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 ATTORNEYS Patented Oct. 26, 1937 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 4 Claims.

My invention relates to a new and improved combination garment, which can be used as an ordinary skirt or dress, or which can be used as a divided skirt or divided dress of the trouser 5 type.

One of the objects of my invention is to provide a skirt garment having a removable insert. When the insert is not in position on the garment, said garment is an ordinary skirt. When the insert is connected in proper position, the skirt becomes a divided skirt.

Another object of my invention is to provide a device wherein hookless fasteners are provided so that the garment can be conveniently transformed into an ordinary skirt or into a divided skirt of the trouser type.

Other objects of my invention will be set forth in the following description and drawings which illustrate a preferred embodiment thereof, it being understood that the above statement of the objects of my invention is intended generally to explain the same without limiting it in any manner.

, Fig. 1 is a front elevation showing the improved garment when used as a skirt.

Fig. 2 is a rear view of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a partial enlarged view of Fig. 1, which shows the interior construction of the garment more clearly. 30 Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 3, showing the rows of hookless fasteners separated from each other, so that the insert can be placed into position.

Figs. 5 and 6 are respectively sectional view on the lines 55 and 66 of Fig. 3 and of Fig. 4.

Fig. '7 is a front elevation showing how the garment shown in Fig. 1 has been converted into a divided skirt.

Fig. 8 is a sectional view on the line 8-8 of 40 Fig. 7.

Fig. 9 is a sectional view on the line 99 of Fig. 10.

Fig. 10 shows an insert with the two leg portions thereof located so as to make a large angle with each other.

The improved garment has side panels I and 2 which can be made of any suitable material. Said panels I and 2 are preferably-equal. The upper ends of said panels I and 2 are connected 50 to a suitable waist portion 3, which is preferably circumferentially continuous, and said waist portion 3 may have the usual separable fastening devices.

The panels I and 2 are connected at the front 55 and at the rear of the garment, by means of separable fasteners, which are preferably of the hookless fastener type. Depending fabric bands 4 and 4a having the general rectangular shape shown in Fig. .1 and in Fig. 2, or any other desired shape, have their upper edges stitched to the waist portion 3, and the side edges of said bands 4 and 4d are respectively stitched to the panels I and 2.

The bottom edges of said bands 4 and 4a are also stitched to the panels I and 2, or to the tops of the fabric stringers S of the hookless fasteners H, or to both the panels and the stringers.

Referring to Fig. 6, the panels I and 2 are provided with inturned edge portions Ia and 2a, which are sewed by stitches 6 and 6a, to the bodies of said panels. Said panels I and 2 are connected to the bands 4 and 4a by means of stitches I and la. The stringers S of suitable hookless fasteners H, are connected to the body panels I and 2 by means of the stitches 6 and 611. These hookless fasteners extend up to the bottom ends of the bands 4 and 4a, so that said bands 4 and 4a act as stops for the movement of the slides 8 of said hookless fasteners. This construction covers the hookless fasteners, so that the garment shown in Figs. 1 and 2 has the appearance of a conventional skirt or dress.

The garment can be opened at its front and rear from the bottom thereof, to the bottoms of the bands 4 and 4a. The hookless fasteners are of the well known type, whereby the cooperating hookless fasteners may be wholly separated from each other leaving the slide S of each pair of rows of hookless fasteners in position at one end of a row of each said pair, as shown in Figs. 4 35 and 6.

The insert which transforms the conventional skirt into a divided skirt is shown in Fig. 10.

Referring to Fig. 10, the insert 9 comprises two leg portions I0 and Ill-a, which are sewed to each other along the line of stitches II. The edges of the members I0 and Illa are respectively provided with pairs of rows of hookless fasteners I2, I2a, and I4 and Ma. One of the rows of hookless fasteners I2 and I4, such as the row I2a and the row I4, is provided with a slide I5.

In order to apply the insert, the rows I2 and I2-a are interlocked with the hookless fasteners of the panel 2, using the slide on row I201 which is shown in Fig. 10, and the slide which is located 50 on one of the rows of hookless fasteners of panel I. The rows of hookless fasteners I4 and Ma are interlocked with the hookless fasteners of panel I, using the slide on row I4, and the slide on one of the rows of hookless fasteners of panel I. The 55 hookless fasteners are concealed by the closely adjacent or abutting inturned edges of the panels. Said inturned edges are sufliciently stiff so that they remain closely adjacent or abutting each other, when the garment is worn. Said edge portions of the panels may be stiffened, if desired, as by the use of additional layers of bendable material, so that the edges of said edge portions will remain in position at all times to conceal or substantially conceal the interlocked hookless f asteners. The stitched top ends of the leg members of the insert, which are connected by the stitches M, then form the crotch of the divided or trouser garment. The body panels I and 2 then form the outside leg portions of the divided skirt.

I have shown a preferred embodiment of my invention but it is clear that numerous changes and omissions can be made without departing from its spirit.

I claim:

1. A divided skirt, said garment having a waist portion and depending leg-portions, each said leg portion having an outer panel andan inner panel, said inner panels being connected to each other to form the crotch of the garment, each said outer panel being connected at its longitudinal edges below the waist of the garment to the longitudinal edges of the inner panels by cooperating detachable fasteners located respectively on said longitudinal edges of the outer panels and on the longiturhnal edges of the inner panels so that the inner panels are detachable as a unit from the outer panels, the rows of fasteners on the longitudinal edges of the outer panels being operative to connect the corresponding longitudinal edges of the outer panels to each other at the front and at the rear of the garment, to transform the garment to a conventional skirt.

2. A divided skirt, said garment having a waist portion and depending leg-portions, each said leg portion having an outer panel and an inner panel, said inner panels being connected to each other to form the crotch of the garment, each said outer panel being connected at its longitudinal edges below the Waist of the garment to the longitudinal edges of the inner panels by cooperating detachable fasteners located respectively on said longitudinal edges of the outer panels and on the longitudinal edges of the inner panels so that the inner panels are detachable as a unit from the outer panels, the rows of fasteners on the longitudinal edges of the outer panels being operative to connect the corresponding longitudinal edges of the outer panels to each other at the front and at the rear of the garment,

to transform the garment to a conventional skirt, said outer panels being connected to each other between the waist portion up to the top fasteners by means of fabric members to which the adjacent edges of said outer panels are stitched.

3. A garment convertible to a skirt or to a divided skirt, said garment comprising outer panels which extend to the waist of the garment, said panels being connected to each other at the top of the garment and down to the crotch portion of the garment, said outer panels having their edges provided with separable fasteners below said crotch portion, said panels being shaped and said fasteners being located so that the edges of said outer panels can be connected to each other along vertical median lines in the front and in the rear of the garment, said panels having means adapted to cover said fasteners, and a detachable insert comprising two auxiliary panels connected at their top portions, each said auxiliary panel having two longitudinal edges having rows of auxiliary separable fasteners which can be connected to the edges of said outer panels to provide a divided skirt having leg portions in Which the auxiliary panels form the crotch and the insides of said leg portions.

4. A garment convertible to a skirt or to a divided skirt, said garment having a circumferentially continuous portion at its waist and below the waist to the crotch of the garment, said garment having outer panels having separable edges below the crotch, said outer panels having their longitudinal edge-portions inturned and secured to the bodies of said outer panels, four stringers connected to said outer panels adjacent the edges thereof and located at the inner surfaces of said outer panels, hookless fasteners connected to said stringers, and located inwardly of the edges of the panels, so that each outer panel is associated with a pair of rows of said hookless fasteners, each said pair of rows of hookless fasteners having a single slide associated therewith, mounted on the inner end of one of said pairs of stringers when the stringers are wholly separated, a pair of auxiliary panels connected to each other only at their top portions, each said auxiliary panel having two longitudinal edges having auxiliary hookless fasteners, the auxiliary hookless fasteners of each panel having asingle slide, the auxiliary hookless fasteners of each auxiliary panel being capable of being interlocked with the hookless fasteners of the respective panels, thus forming the leg portions of a divided skirt in which the auxiliary panels form the crotch and the inside members of said leg portions.

JACOB COWF. 

